Correlations of gene expression, codon usage bias, and evolutionary rates of the mitochondrial genome show tissue differentiation in Ophioglossum vulgatum

作者：Jing Hao, Yingyi Liang, Ting Wang, Yingjuan Su · 发表于：BMC Plant Biology · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1186/s12870-025-06157-x · 被引用次数：13 · 研究领域：Photosynthetic Processes and Mechanisms、Mitochondrial Function and Pathology、Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies

BACKGROUND: Mitochondria are crucial for energy production in plant tissues, but their quantity and activity vary in different tissues and developmental processes. Determining the factors underlying differential molecular evolutionary rates has long been a central question in evolutionary biology, with expression level emerging as the prime predictor. Although we have previously observed an anti-correlation between expression level (E) and evolutionary rate (R) in chloroplast genes, it remains unclear whether such an anti-correlation exists in plant mitochondrial genes. Ophioglossum vulgatum is a typical plant belonging to the Ophioglossaceae, characterized by its unique morphology with only a single leaf above ground. It holds significant scientific and medicinal value. Using the mitochondrial genome and transcriptome data of O. vulgatum, we first analyzed the correlation between mitochondrial gene expression, codon usage bias, and evolutionary rates in different tissues. RESULTS: Our findings indicated that mitochondrial gene expression level was the strongest between stem and leaf, while the weakest was between sporangium and root. Kruskal-Wallis tests revealed significant differences across various tissue types. Codon usage bias was influenced by both mutation and selection, with selection exerting a greater impact. The Spearman's rank correlation coefficients between codon adaptation index and expression levels of sporangium, stem, leaf, and root were 0.1178, 0.3926, 0.4...